You have received your first commercial deal! If you are like most of the brokers I’ve counseled lately your story is probably similar to the one below:

What does the average “money broker” ( I prefer to use the term capital consultant) do? First, the want to know the loan amount and then they quickly tack on 1-5 points (they assure me they are never greedy) and then they take an executive summary and shoot it around the internet asking lenders if they can close this loan in 14-21 days!

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

These brokers are not taking the correct actions. They are simply planning to fail. Why? They are ignoring the proven strategies used by seasoned commercial brokers.

Want to know the “Secret”?

Before you submit any loan proposal to any lender, you must find out:

The number of deals that lender has closed in the past, and how many they intend to close in the current year.

This is critical to your success! And how do you find out? ASK! Ask the lender by phone or email if they are looking for this type of loan and at the amount your borrower requires. If it is a medical office building ask them how many of these have they closed? And how many do they intend to close this year?

You want to hear: “Oh, we did many of these loans last year and we intend to do many this year!” Don’t send your prime office building to a lender that’s seeking to fund retail centers!

Find lenders and develop a personal relationship with them. Find out what their sweet spot is. In summary, Never submit a loan deal to any lender unless you are able to verify that the lender has closed many of the specific types of deals that your are seeking funding for and that they are currently actively lending.

Seasoned commercial brokers have honed their lender relationships over the years. You can begin this week by contacting at least one lender and interviewing them. At the end of one year you could easily have 52 lenders that you’ve developed a file on and what their lending parameters and preferred property types are.

Commercial mortgages are loans taken for the purchase of property that is, only intended for business or commercial use. Properties like shopping centers, industrial centers, offices, golf courses, resorts, hotels, parking garages, and car washes are termed as commercial properties. In Colorado, the best way to apply for a mortgage for a commercial property is to contact a commercial mortgage broker.

Colorado commercial mortgage brokers are usually a part of the Colorado Association of Mortgage Brokers (CAMB). It is a non-profit organization, aimed at providing assistance to professionals specializing in real estate. Commercial mortgage brokers are provided with training programs to keep them up-to-date with the latest trends and practices through this organization. The Colorado Association of Mortgage Brokers is also a part of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers.

It is necessary to get commercial property financed, at a competitive rate as it directly affects the finances of the organization. Commercial brokers come into the picture once a company decides on the location and price of a property. Usually, organizations opt for a ‘commercial interest only’ loan, as it provides them with an option of paying, only the interest for the first few years of the loan. A commercial loan can be for period of anywhere between five to thirty years. The rate for these loans can be either fixed or adjustable.

To become a commercial mortgage broker it is necessary to get a license. The appropriate regulatory bodies that are set in place regulate all the brokers. A regulator body will ensure that the broker complies with the laws. However, to know how a broker treats the customers and if the services provided by the broker are satisfactory, it is advisable to get an opinion from other similar business companies.

Commercial mortgage brokers advice the companies in deciding the best loan option. They help their clients understand the whole method of writing a proper loan application, processing the loan file and closing the loan. This helps the companies save a considerable amount of time and money.

I take many calls each day as “The Money Doctor”. I receive tons of calls from broker’s around the country. These are all good, honest hardworking people. Many of these calls could have been avoided because the beginning commercial broker is not aware of the proper and proven operating strategies.

The conversation typically goes like this:

“Hey Doc, I’m new at this and I just landed a mega deal. Are you sitting down? I have signed an exclusive with a borrower for a $25M dollar deal to finance a health care facility. I sold the client that I could get the cash for him. My question is this: “Doc, where can I get a loan for this guy?”

My heart goes out to the broker and to the client! “Why didn’t you find the lender first , find out what areas the lender is interested in and what their requirements are? Then advertise for that certain type of loan? If you did this, then when your future clients call you would know where to take the loan and your clients would be seeking that specific type of loan.

If you did it this way, then all you have to do is qualify the borrower, collect the documents and package them to your lender’s request. That is much easier and will cause fewer gray hairs!
Unfortunately, these brokers are calling because they didn’t do it that way. Now the broker is scrambling for a lender , while stalling the borrower: not a good position to be in! The chances of success, of obtaining a commission on that $25M lead is slim, unless of course he wants to co-broker (and of course I’ll be happy to help! J)

Please the secret here is simple. Many brokers suffer from Lender Phobia. They are literally afraid to speak to the “Checkwriter”. Do yourself a favor and call some lenders and interview them. Lenders expect to be called by professionals. They make money when you bring them good loans. They want your business.

There are many broker friendly commercial lenders. It is important for your career to begin to groom your lending relationships. These are the people that will put money into your pocket month after month.

In any sales job you must have a good prospecting model. Commercial real estate sales and leasing is no different. The prospecting model in the commercial real estate industry is however quite special to the type of property you work around and the clients that you deal with. The database that you create has to capture property investment detail such as area, property type, price range, rent levels, special property needs, and location detail. The database you use should be versatile enough to do that.

It’s worth expanding on this prospecting point so that you can construct the prospecting model that works for you. You have to have leads and lots of them to make money in commercial real estate. It’s not really the office that you work for that actually matters, although it will have some minor impact. The real results that you get in the industry come from one activity that you and only you control; it’s called prospecting.

Those people that start up in the industry do not really ‘get it’ for some time. They think that business ‘walks in the door’ of the office. Only a small amount of business will come to you in that way. In fact the more you sit in the office, the less successful you will be. I tell many new people to the industry to spend no more than 2 hours a day in the office, and the rest of your time in your market.

So what should you do ‘in your market’ each day? Here are a few main activities that are obligatory.

Get a map of the streets that contain the property listings that you are interested in. Check out the good properties in the street and note them on the map. Any properties of note should be tracked down as to who owns them.

Walk the streets each day, entering the businesses and asking to speak to the business owner or General Manager. Leave your business card if the right person is not available. Do at least 10 businesses per day. What you are looking to do here is introduce yourself but more particularly find out if the business is a tenant or an owner of the property. This is invaluable market intelligence.

The golden rule of prospecting contact in commercial real estate is for you to make direct contact with the people that are qualified prospects at least every 90 days. This cycle does not stop. You should be doing at least 5 of those every day over a 90 day period. When you do your numbers this indicates that you should be working at least 300 qualified prospects.

Suspects are the other people you contact and they are approached simply to see if they should become prospects in your group of 300.

Send at least 5 letters a day to people that you know own the best properties in your area. Always follow up these letters with a telephone call.

When you have made a sale or a lease in an area, make contact with the nearby owners with a letter telling them of the success. Always follow up those letters with a telephone call.

Meet the tenants or occupiers of any neighboring properties that are adjacent to things that you have listed for sale or for lease.

When a sign board goes up on a property through another agency, make sure you personally canvass the other properties adjacent and near to those listings. Most property owners would rather compete through another real estate agent should they want to also list their property for sale or for lease.

Look for vacant property, as this is always a reason to contact the owner to see if they want to sell or lease the property. A vacancy is usually a landlord ‘pain’ factor that requires relief.

Check out the local planning authority each month to see if any new developments or rezoning applications are going through. The local planning authority is most likely located at the local council and they usually have minutes that are available for public scrutiny.

Work the investment cycle of buy, lease, and sell in your area. Property investors will usually buy a property, hold it for 5 years (on average), lease it during that period, and then position themselves for another purchase or sale. This then says that you can work out the best listing opportunities from the lists of properties in your area that were purchased about 4 to 5 years ago.

Create a great database from your enquiries for other properties. A carefully constructed and executed property sale or leasing campaign will always leave you with many leads for other property opportunities. One good property marketing campaign will leave you with well qualified contacts that you can shape up for future opportunity.

Make lots of calls each day. The telephone has to be your friend so get used to using it. Sure you will make lots of calls to suspects and most of them will say ‘no’ to your offering. The best way to make lots of calls in commercial real estate is simply to use the ‘Yellow Pages’ of businesses in your area. A carefully crafted telephone conversation will identify whether the business is a tenant, a property owner, or a property buyer. All of these categories offer opportunity.

Monitor the ‘time on market’ of other agents listings. Not only will these be a source of listings later for you, but the ‘time on market’ will give you an idea of what is selling or leasing and what is not. Avoid overpriced listings at all costs unless you believe the property owner will bring their price down.

Check out all ‘for sale by owner’ listings. They may not sell or could be a later source of listing for you when the property owner has given up trying to do the job themselves.

Business owners will tell you a lot about the area and the neighboring properties. You just need to ask the questions. Taking to business owners every day will help you build your resources for listing opportunity.

Strengthen relationships through constant 90 day contact with all your prospects. Create lots of qualified prospects through sifting through lists and direct telephone calls to suspects.

You may look at the list and say that it is obvious; surprisingly most commercial real estate people do very little of what is on the list. Why is that? They simply lack the personal focus and do not follow through each and every day. If you follow the rules in commercial real estate, you will become very successful. Commissions will flow toward you and you will be the agent of choice.